The Obama administration announced plans Friday to create more detention space for families caught at the border and to accelerate cases through immigration courts, hoping to stem a growing tide of migration from Central America.

Alejandro Mayorkas, deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said the government is "actively pursuing additional capacity" to detain families -- a proposition that has proved to be both complicated and controversial in the past. DHS officials said they planned to open a temporary detention center to house up to 700 adults with children at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center campus in Artesia, N.M.

They also announced plans to begin using electronic bracelets to track immigrants released with notices to appear in immigration court.

Mayorkas said DHS and other federal agencies also plan to put additional immigration judges and other personnel on the border to speed up the processing of asylum claims, which will allow the government to more quickly deport migrants to Central America.

Immigration officials are contending with a record-breaking influx of immigrants from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, with more than 160,000 apprehensions of migrants from countries other than Mexico reported in the first eight months of this fiscal year -- eclipsing the totals for at least the last 17 fiscal years for which the Border Patrol has such statistics available.

Administration officials on Friday intensified efforts to counter rumors circulating in Central America that the U.S. is issuing migrants caught at the border with children "permisos" -- permits -- to enter the United States.

In fact, the U.S. government has released tens of thousands of migrants with children at public bus stops with orders to appear in immigration court at a later date, but administration officials said many arrive believing "misinformation" from smuggling networks that they will be able to remain in the U.S.

The White House announcement came amid mounting political pressure for the administration to change policies that Republicans argue have encouraged both unaccompanied children and migrants from Central America with children to cross the Southwest border.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry sent Obama a letter on Friday warning that the "the safety and security of our border communities is being threatened by this flood of illegal immigration, and the crisis worsens by the day.

Adults from Central America are typically detained and placed into expedited removal proceedings, which allows the government to bypass the requirement that they appear before a judge unless they express fear of being returned home.

By law, the government cannot use the fast-track procedure with unaccompanied children, though it can for children caught with their parents.

But the family bed space shortage has made detaining thousands of families pending an immigration court appearance impossible.

As a result, immigration officials released tens of thousands at bus stops across the southwest in recent months, leading the attorney general in Arizona last week to threaten a lawsuit if they did not stop unloading families there.